(WOMENSENEWS)--As
students return to college
campuses this month, those
attending at least one school
are guaranteed that they can
speak more openly about sexual
assault cases, thanks to a
ruling by the U.S. Department
of Education this summer.

In July the
department advised Georgetown
University that the school's
policy of requiring a campus
rape victim to sign a confidentiality
agreement before receiving
the outcome of any disciplinary
action against an assailant
was illegal.

Though some
say the ruling isn't a huge
breakthrough, a nonprofit
group is hailing the decision,
the first of its kind, as
significant in treating victims
of campus sexual assault more
fairly and helping break the
silence surrounding campus
rape.

"It will
ensure that sexual-assault
victims are able to talk to
people they need to tell what
happened to heal," said
Daniel Carter, vice president
of Security On Campus Inc.,
the nonprofit victim assistance
group based in King Of Prussia,
Pa., that filed the complaint
against Georgetown last year.
"And if they have grievances
they are free to address those."

It's unknown
how many schools use actual
nondisclosure agreements in
cases of sexual assault. But
rape advocates say that one
way or another, most colleges
conduct student disciplinary
cases in confidentiality.

Carter said
it's most common for schools
to impose an informal understanding
of confidentiality than to
require a student to sign
an agreement. "Having
one or the other is virtually
universal," he said.
"In lots of other schools
they just tell them they can't
disclose the results; that's
still a conditional disclosure."
Carter's group brought the
suit on behalf of student
Kate Dieringer, who said she
was assaulted in September
2001.

Suit Stems
From 2001 Assault Case

Figures on sexual
assaults against college women
are hard to pin down. Less
than 5 percent of these rape
or attempted rape cases are
reported to the police and
victims are often confused
about what constitutes rape,
according to The Sexual Victimization
of College Women study sponsored
by the U.S. Department of
Justice in 2000. The study
estimated, however, that 1-in-4
women experienced rape or
attempted rape during their
college career.

Dieringer has
stated she was 18 when she
was assaulted, in the third
week of her freshman year.
She said she was pulled away
from a party by her new student
orientation leader and taken
to his apartment. That's the
last thing she remembers.
She says she woke up four
hours later and was being
raped. She suspects she may
have been drugged.

Georgetown's
Office of Student Conduct
initially expelled Dieringer's
alleged rapist during a 2002
hearing, but the decision
was changed to a one-year
suspension, with the opportunity
to return to Georgetown, after
he appealed. To find out those
results, Dieringer signed
an agreement promising not
to share the results with
anyone but her parents and
one close advisor. To top
it off, she said the office's
director called her "a
woman scorned" in her
discussion with her.

Following
Privacy Law

Georgetown maintains
the nondisclosure agreement
was necessary to protect the
privacy of all the students
involved and to comply with
the Family Educational Rights
and Privacy Act (FERPA), a
federal law mandating privacy
around student records.

"The alleged
perpetrator needs as much
protection as the alleged
victim," said Sheldon
Steinbach, vice president
and general counsel for the
American Council on Education.
"Especially since many
of these cases are awash in
alcohol and drugs and nothing
comes of them."

Colleges also
want to make sure such proceedings
are treated as educational.
"The disciplinary system
plays an educational role,
it's not a criminal proceeding,"
said Julie Green Bataille,
spokesperson for Georgetown
University.

But victims'
advocate Carter said these
justifications don't suffice.
"For lots of schools
the real motivation goes to
their image rather than a
student's well being,"
he said. "Student safety
and the ability to heal is
a superior interest to privacy
in cases of criminal conduct.
We're talking about violence
here, an alleged criminal
act against someone else,
not cheating or residence
misconduct."

The U.S. Department
of Education agreed. They
said nondisclosure agreements
in cases of sexual-assault
violated the so-called Cleary
Act, which requires schools
receiving federal aid to notify
victims of their right to
report their assaults to law-enforcement
authorities. The schools must
also issue annual reports
on crimes committed on their
campuses.

The legislation--its
full name is the Jeanne Clery
Disclosure of Campus Security
Policy and Campus Crime Statistics
Act--was passed in 1990 and
named after a student at Lehigh
University in Bethlehem, Pa.,
who was raped and murdered
in her dorm in 1986. Institutions
that violate the law face
warnings, fines of up to $27,500
per violation or loss of eligibility
to participate in federal
student aid programs.

Georgetown's
Bataille said the school's
policies reflected administrators'
best understanding of these
two federal laws. "Schools
need to balance the privacy
rights of students protected
by FERPA with the outcome
disclosure requirements imposed
by the Clery Act," she
said. "Now we're being
given a more clear direction
on how to administer those
policies."

Defending
Culture of Confidentiality

Some participants
in this legal area, however,
defended campus customs on
confidentiality.

Ed Stoner, a
lawyer with Reed Smith in
Pittsburgh, Pa., who represents
colleges and universities,
is one. "My clients all
ask the students in a disciplinary
process to treat the process
with dignity and confidentiality.
It allows the student to go
forth with life."

Stoner played
down the significance of the
ruling, saying that such nondisclosure
agreements are rare. "This
ruling is significant in that
colleges and universities
pay a great deal of attention
to the Department of Education
with regards to the acts they
administer and how they should
be interpreted," he said.
"But this situation is
unique to Georgetown."

Some schools
already allow disclosure of
the outcome of the hearing
so the ruling's impact isn't
dramatic for higher education
as a whole, added Steinbach.
Besides, he said, confidentiality
agreements have a limited
impact. "There's very
little restraining the student
from breaking a confidentiality
agreement and for the most
part individuals who feel
they're a victim feel no need
to further disclose what transpires."

Carter, the
rape-victim advocate, disagreed,
saying that victims can be
threatened with disciplinary
action for disclosing information
about an assailant. The threats
initially worked on Dieringer.
"The last thing I wanted
to be was in trouble with
Georgetown," she told
Women's eNews.

Both Carter
and Dieringer hope the ruling
will make schools more accountable
for how they handle rape cases,
and that students will feel
free to warn others, improving
campus safety. "What's
educational is to disclose
what happens," said Dieringer,
who's now preparing for her
last year as a nursing major.
"If someone knows what
happens when they commit a
crime it may be a deterrent.
You can't deter a crime in
secret."